Cotton and potatoes have been around for years, but growing them on the moon was all about preparing for the future.
Successfully growing crops could help astronauts grow their own food, and that could support longer-term and more wide-ranging exploration of the solar system.
More than that, it could point to redefining how we think about the moon in the first place, less as a goal in itself for exploration, but more of a staging post with a permanent presence from which to launch missions to other planets. Indeed, China's ambitions are far-reaching and the government has announced plans for a Mars mission in 2020.
